West Bengal’s tribal body to boycott polls

Siliguri, April 1 (IANS) Akhil Bharatiya Adivashi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP), a tribal body in West Bengal’s northern hills, Wednesday announced that they will boycott the Lok Sabha elections in the Terai-Dooars region of the state. “We had given a memorandum to the Jalpaiguri administration over a month back, asking for a separate constituency at Terai-Dooars to be reserved for Scheduled Tribes,” John Barla, ABAVP’s Terai and Dooars co-ordination committee president, said here.

“There were a couple of other demands like the proposed East-West corridor should pass through this region,” said Barla.

“The ABAVP gave the administration an ultimatum till March 31. Since we didn’t get any response from them on the demands, we in a party meeting today (Wednesday) decided not to cast our votes. In fact, all the tribals of Terai and Dooars will boycott the polls,” he said.

Barla said about 60 percent of the total population of Terai-Dooars are tribals.